Bad Taste Radio - Girl Dumped Live On The Radio

[Doug Drown]

Strike It Rich!  I recall that show from very early childhood (Warren Hull,
the 1930s actor, was the host, if I remember right).  I guess I wasn't old
enough to understand what it was about.  Gad.  This was on "The Tiffany
Network"?  Thanks for filling us in.

-Doug


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shawn Mamros" <mamros@MIT.EDU>
To: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 2:31 PM
Subject: Re: Bad Taste Radio - Girl Dumped Live On The Radio


> > Their naivete and their consequent pain are paraded for all the
> > nation to see.  There's something sick about that.
>
> Anyone who thinks this is a new phenomenon related to today's "reality"
> programming would do well to study the history of a CBS Radio (later TV)
> show named "Strike It Rich".
>
> Imagine a quiz show devoted solely to contestants (often whole families)
> of meager financial means.  And if they couldn't answer the questions
> right, they were turned over to the mercy of the "heart line", where
> listeners/viewers would donate money or goods to them.  It got to the
> point where people (and often whole families) were buying one-way
> tickets to New York to try and get on the show.  And it was on TV
> for close to seven years - 1951 to 1958, right in the middle of
> TV's purported "golden age".
>
> Exploiting people for ratings is nothing new.  It's just that others
> choose to forget, or would rather keep it forgotten.
>
> -Shawn Mamros
> E-mail to: mamros -at- mit dot edu
>